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The problem with the change in art direction for me was that it didn't bring anything to the show, it only detracted from it. I'm fine with a complete deviation from the standard character designs, but the alternative style used must look good or be interesting. An example would be episode 41 of an old series called Ninku, which replaced the standard character design with completely different ones, but in doing so became one of the best anime episodes I've ever seen, something truly special.
To me the style change on today's episode didn't bring anything to the table, it only managed to make everything look cheap. It was uncalled for.

Hmmm... still not sure how to think about SakiXSatoru. On one hand, it has been shown since episode 1 that Saki is interested in Shun, and it's 'kinda' reciprocated by episode 3, so it kinda feels NTR'ish watching the 'almost' sex scene (or at least I felt like it was NTR... you know the 'I wanna punch someone' feeling from reading such drivel? XD). On the other, Saki interacts with Satoru more than the other two boys combined (if only because Satoru likes provoking Saki), so yeah...

Although what disappoints me the most? 4 episodes in and so far no group shot that's worth turning to a signature. They sure like their close ups in this series, with them hardly having any scenes with more than 3 people animated at once.

Couldn't agree more. Though to be fair, this happens with virtually every adaptation, you're always gonna have some people who'd whine at every little detail that's not the same as the original material. It's as if they don't understand how adaptation works, different medium, diff. market, stuff are going to get changed, deal with it.

That said, the ones in this forum is more obnoxious than most, I've almost given up on checking these threads because inevitably they always devolve into complaints about the anime didn't show so and so giving a blowjob to this dude and whatnot.

Hmmm... still not sure how to think about SakiXSatoru. On one hand, it has been shown since episode 1 that Saki is interested in Shun, and it's 'kinda' reciprocated by episode 3, so it kinda feels NTR'ish watching the 'almost' sex scene (or at least I felt like it was NTR... you know the 'I wanna punch someone' feeling from reading such drivel? XD). On the other, Saki interacts with Satoru more than the other two boys combined (if only because Satoru likes provoking Saki), so yeah...

You shouldn't feel no NTR. They almost have sex due to psychological conditioning. Romantic feelings have nothing to do with it.

The matter-of-fact way in which both Saki and Satoru behave in that scene makes it crystal clear how devoid of emotion all this is. They're acting purely on instincts, just like monkeys...

Yes, it was the blowdog in the beginning, but the fact that they mentioned how far they evolved suggests that other areas of the tribe could have evolved in the same way. The ones creating the gas in the end did not look like the normal queerats either.

Was there a reason for the change in directors and more importantly will we see them again?

There was no change of directors. Every anime has episode directors (enshutsu) that are in charge of handling entire episodes. Some enshutsu are more involved in the series and do many episodes, but a lot of times it's a "guest star" situation where someone respected by the director or the producers comes and does an episode.

Shigeyasu Yamauchi (Crasshern Sins) handled this episode, and Ishihama (the director of the series) let him do whatever he pleased, without putting any restraint on him. Or so it seems.
That's why the episode was so different, Yamauchi went overboard.

I don't think we will see him again in SSY, since he doesn't seem to be close to the series and he doesn't normally do more than one episode of a show.

Was there a reason for the change in directors and more importantly will we see them again?

I think the guy who did the art direction this episode Shigeyasu Yamauchi only got to do this one episode because he is friends with one of the staff and asked if it was okay so they gave him the green light to whatever he wanted. I don't know if he'll be back to do another episode though.

Couldn't agree more. Though to be fair, this happens with virtually every adaptation, you're always gonna have some people who'd whine at every little detail that's not the same as the original material. It's as if they don't understand how adaptation works, different medium, diff. market, stuff are going to get changed, deal with it.

That said, the ones in this forum is more obnoxious than most, I've almost given up on checking these threads because inevitably they always devolve into complaints about the anime didn't show so and so giving a blowjob to this dude and whatnot.

as if they can show that on a friggin over the air broadcast

Haven't really been following this line of discussion so perhaps I should just mind my own buisiness but I, for one, don't dislike being briefed on the differences between source material and adaptations on forums. Sure, adapations like these should be able to entertain on their own and the visual medium, that is anime, often requires a different approach to some things than say; a novel. However it's silly to say that we shouldn't base our expectations of an adaptation on the work that is based on. It existes, even that tiny scrap of information gives form the expectations we hold this show to.

As things stand now; I, as a someone who hasn't read the novel, think that Saki has rejected her programming and considers the life she has lived up until now a lie, a fašade, something to that needs to be escaped or at the very least altered. That's what the aborted sexscene implied and if the novel did something different there, it's something that must be adressed if the anime is to continue to use the book's plot. To summarize: deviations in adaptations equals good stuff for us to speculate on.

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Originally Posted by Eisdrache

Was there a reason for the change in directors and more importantly will we see them again?

For obvious reasons it's not uncommon for multiple directors (and [key]animators and writers and so on and so forth) to work on the same series. Judging from the preview it looks like we'll be going back to the style of the last four episodes next week, but there's really no reason to assume this style won't make a comback for the more action-y, stress-y episodes. Other than... you know... the reasons given by Dark Wing and Warm Mist.

Haven't really been following this line of discussion so perhaps I should just mind my own buisiness but I, for one, don't dislike being briefed on the differences between source material and adaptations on forums. Sure, adapations like these should be able to entertain on their own and the visual medium, that is anime, often requires a different approach to some things than say; a novel. However it's silly to say that we shouldn't base our expectations of an adaptation on the work that is based on. It existes, even that tiny scrap of information gives form the expectations we hold this show to.

While you have a point, the mod has made it clear multiple times these episode threads are not the proper place to discuss source material/adaptation comparisons. For this sort of discussion you have a specific thread here:

I feel like Shigeyasu Yamauchi's distinct style only works when he has great animators to back him up, like in Casshern Sins and the flashier moments of Yumekui Merry.Shin Sekai Yori #5 didn't have that. For a good part of the episode, I thought I was watching some sort of outsourced & offshored episode until I realized that the distinctive look of it was fairly consistent(ly mediocre), and then figured they let some animator / AD with a "style" have a go at it.

I'm not averse to shows bringing in auteur staff for certain episodes. It's unfortunate that it didn't work out in this case. Yamauchi has done some pretty awesome shit in the past, but I didn't like how they brought him in, which sounds great on paper, without giving the production team the time/resources/whatever to make it happen. The episode looked rushed and cheap. All other problems just flowed from that.

One interpretation of her expression is that she is slyly enjoying her ability to manipulate Satoru sexually. Another, more benign interpretation is that her expression reflects her bliss as she succumbs to the effects of the "bonobo gene" for lack of a better term. On first watching I subscribed to the first interpretation, but now I wonder if the second isn't more apt.

I had a lot of problems with the lack of continuity and logic in this episode from the way the balloon dog cliffhanger was handled at the outset all the way to Satoru's remarkable insight that the gas was flammable (why?). Until now it has been Shun who automatically knows everything that needs to be known, but now Satoru can sense the chemical structure of a gas and determine that it will explode when ignited? And what kind of invading force uses a gas like that? I thought the gas was designed to kill the queerats living in the tunnels so they could be easily conquered.

Then we have the final scene in this episode which I've watched twice and understood neither time. First, the kids look up and see what they think is the sky. Then Satoru uses his spear to chip away at it (why?), and we see that what looks like stars might just be sparkles in the rock. Then that fluid comes down from above. It's too viscous to be water, so what is it? I could use a bit more information here myself.

Regarding the very noticeable direction and art change I think the most distracting aspect of it that makes it almost look a little amateur is that characters are constantly partially out of the frame of where you would assume the shot would be centered and the camera almost never seems to move so characters tend to awkwardly enter and exit the frame in rather strange ways. It basically completely lacks the rather dynamic and fluid style we've seen in the previous four episodes. Also it's like every character in a particular frame looks like they're positioned about an inch above and to the right where you would expect them to be such that whoevers on the right always seems to have part of their head cut out of the frame completely. If it were cell animation I'd suggest somebody had accidentally positioned some of the cells wrong, but this....yeah it's just hard not to notice really. One last thing regarding how the animation usually tended to flow is that their were almost non stop shots of people moving one limb in a particular direction or of somebody reacting, but nothing every really seemed to move where you'd expect the movement. All of this as has already been stated made for a pretty disjointed and artificial feeling episode where it always feels like something is off about the action taking place. The thing is though if the show didn't already have such a distinct feel to the art and direction compared to most other shows it probably wouldn't even be so noticeable.

As for the episode itself it was pretty much consistent with the rest of the episode, though it was a bit hard to figure out what the hell was going on for about the first minute or so thanks to the above mentioned frame positioning issue.

I had a lot of problems with the lack of continuity and logic in this episode from the way the balloon dog cliffhanger was handled at the outset all the way to Satoru's remarkable insight that the gas was flammable (why?). Until now it has been Shun who automatically knows everything that needs to be known, but now Satoru can sense the chemical structure of a gas and determine that it will explode when ignited? And what kind of invading force uses a gas like that? I thought the gas was designed to kill the queerats living in the tunnels so they could be easily conquered.

Well, if they rats have blowdogs, they might have other critters, too. What's the beast that hatches from those eggs again? Do we know? I remember them talking about the eggs, but I'd have to go back, looking at episode 3 (I think). In any case, both the egg and the balloon dog seem to produce exploding gas. It's not such a stretch. It might have just been a desperate reaction on Satoru's part; hope rather than knowledge.

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Then we have the final scene in this episode which I've watched twice and understood neither time. First, the kids look up and see what they think is the sky. Then Satoru uses his spear to chip away at it (why?), and we see that what looks like stars might just be sparkles in the rock. Then that fluid comes down from above. It's too viscous to be water, so what is it? I could use a bit more information here myself.

The way I saw the scene, they thought they saw a hole, and Satoru tried to widen it, but he found no hole to widen, only a bioluminiscent substance (most likely, microorganisms, or fungi). No escape.